Girard Marius

Marius Girard (Reims 1927-2014 Laon) was a French artist, mainly known as a street painter in Paris. He was a painter, graphic designer, lithographer and illustrator. After working as a laborer, his discovery of the Place du Tertre, in Montmartre, will determine the rest of his life. There he met the few painters who were still painting there at the time, and he was enriched by their contact. He moved into a cellar on the square and lived from the sale of his paintings. Later, when success came, he set up his workshop on the Rue Saint Rustique in Paris. Marius Girard paints the Butte, the Moulin Rouge and the Sacré Cœur, but all of Paris also inspires him. His painting is free and spontaneous, never repetitive, in the tradition of Utrillo and Korovine. It is part of the history of the Butte, just as the silhouette of Marius Girard was inseparable from the Place du Tertre. He shows an assertive talent as a colorist and his palette, full of liveliness and optimism, is very recognizable. Girard's works were published in lithographs and postcards and in the 1970s he was often mentioned as the most reproduced French painter in the country. In 1972 and 1973 he went to the United States and Canada, where, for once, he changed his inspiration and painted numerous urban landscapes of the New World. (Les Atamanes)